Ultimate Guitar's David Slavković recently spoke with singer Tony Martin, the second longest-running vocalist in Black Sabbath, and go more in-depth about the band's commercially panned Forbidden album from 1995 and a few other topics. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

UG: Traditionally, Forbidden is often looked down upon by the press. But honestly, I find that there's some really good stuff on it. "Rusty Angels", "Get a Grip", and "Kiss of Death" – really good songs actually. And it's one of the albums that got me into Black Sabbath as a kid. How how do you look back on it at this point? Do you think the music could have turned out better or production and mixing? I know that at one point you had negative comments about it. But did you change your opinion on it?

Tony Martin: "No, it's still shit. To me, anyway. I can't enjoy it. I mean... I have to tell you the background to it really. When we started that album, we didn't know it was going to be called Forbidden at this point. It's just us writing songs in the studio. And at that point, we were still quite good friends really. And everything was quite good. And the songs are going okay.

Then we had a call from Black Sabbath's management to say they were going to try this rap idea with Ice T. I didn't think that would work and Cozy Powell didn't think it would work. And so we had this meeting, and they said we are doing it. It's just like, you know, 'How do we get you guys to fit in?' So okay, well, we'll try. Ice T sent his guy Ernie C. Nice guys. Really nice guys. Nothing wrong with them, fun to work with and funny.

But the rap thing, the rap thing... I mean, they're obviously thinking Run DMC, you know? But it's Black Sabbath. And Cozy Powell kept saying 'I don't know how this is gonna turn out.' And they were trying to tell him how to play drums. Like, you do know who he is, right? It's Cozy Powell.

So anyway, they're trying to get him to do this rap rhythm thing. Cozy Powell wasn't digging it, I wasn't digging it. And then they said, 'Well, Ice T is gonna sing something.' And I said, 'Okay, sing what?' 'Well, we haven't decided yet.' Is he singing a song, a line a word? What's he singing? And they said, 'Well just keep going. We haven't decided, we'll make a decision at the end.' So we're writing these songs. And I'm still asking, 'What am I doing? Am I writing this thing? Am I singing on this?' 'Oh, well, we haven't decided yet.' Or, you know, 'Just keep going.' So even in the recording studio, I'm actually in the studio, and I still don't know if I'm going to be on the album or if somebody else is singing it. Because they wouldn't tell me.

Okay, now I can't concentrate. I can't sync my voice. I couldn't really make it work the way I wanted it to work. So for me, Forbidden is shit because of the background surrounding the thing. I'm fully expecting to be fired again. I'm thinking 'This is not good.' There's something going on, you know. I just couldn't concentrate.

For that reason, Forbidden is a lost album to me. And I wish I had the chance to re-sing it, because I could do a much better job, I think. But now, there are people that love it out there. And they find something – you've just said – that really worked for them. And I'm going 'How can you like that?!'"

Read more here.

BraveWords had the honour of speaking to Tony Martin about his excellent new (and best-selling!) album, Thorns, and the chat will air this weekend (Saturday, January 22) on Streaming For Vengeance.

You can watch/listen Streaming For Vengeance on the BraveWords Facebook page or the BraveWords YouTube channel this this Saturday, January 22nd at 3:33 PM EST. For more information about Streaming For Vengeance, visit this location.

Tony Martin is best known for his time fronting Black Sabbath, initially from 1987 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1996. Martin was the band’s second longest serving vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne. Eternal Idol and Headless Cross are among the best known Black Sabbath albums featuring Tony Martin as well as Scream his solo album from 2005.

(Photo - Rob Billingham)